For the final assignment, you are to pick ANYTHING from the course“anything presented from the modules, discussions, your ow

For the final assignment, you are to pick ANYTHING from the course–anything presented from the modules, discussions, your own essays, ANYTHING–and present a persuasive argument for how it relates to either your academic or personal life. How does this thing relate to your major (if enrolled in college) or intended profession (if applying for college, trade school, or otherwise)? How would it be useful within your own personal life? Why does it matter?

The topics can come from those listed above, which were provided as refreshers. It can be something really big and expansive, like Classical Greek Rhetoric or C.H.A.T. It can be something "small" and precise, such as anaphora or delving into why not writing "you" in formal writing is a good idea. Again, it can be ANYTHING presented in the course.

Why not just tell me exactly what to write about? Why don’t I get a precise prompt?

In the "real world" your prompts will be vague at best. If you’re going into further academic work, the prompt for a ten page essay might simply be "Evaluate Sarte’s claims." In the business world, your employer isn’t going to spend a whole lot of time outlining precisely what to write and/or produce, and may not know themselves what they’re looking for (but will nevertheless not like something you produce if they themselves weren’t envisioning it, yet weren’t kind enough to fill you in on their preferences in advance).

This assignment is meant to start moving you in the direction of writing and researching a topic with a limited prompt, yet within a framework of the course you’ve been studying throughout the semester. This is not only to reflect the reality of the writing situation beyond high school/college, but also to encourage self-actualization within your own education. The final goal, as well, is to get you thinking about these concepts beyond just "something I learned in school," but to consider the applicability and relevance of what you are learning to your own lives, and asserting the value and ethos of your own voice in determining the validity of such things.

So…anything from the course, regardless of where it came in the semester, big or small?

Yup.

Okay. So where do I take it from there? 

Once you’ve picked your topic, the main objective is to write an essay-length, persuasive argument that attempts to make an argument about why that particular topic is worthy and relevant to further study or attention. 

So I thought that the brief history of English was really boring, and so I didn’t take the time to learn it. Do I just say that?

That’s not very persuasive, nor is it an essay, so no.

But if I came up with a solid argument for why English history is suspect, with colonist implications for why the stories we tell about our language history are ultimately detrimental to how (insert type of group and/or society) perceives language ideologies in the present day?

This sounds possibly beyond ENG 101, but I’ve read more complex arguments than this in final papers before. So yes, it’d work.

How much do I have to write?

1500 words, or 4-5 fully filled double spaced pages.

So what do I write about for that amount of length, then?

After making your claim, the next steps will require conducting research into that specific topic in order to bolster your claims. It might potentially require incorporate life writing and/or personal experience that might help you persuade your reader of your argument. It might require researching the pros and cons of learning about that particular issue. It might require doing research into how other people feel about particular issues, or looking at the impacts of such topics within the lives of others.

Is there a hard research requirement?

Yes. Regardless of whether your paper ultimately is more objective or subjective, it needs to incorporate research throughout. The research requirement is not going to be at the level of ENG 102, yet has to show some substantial effort was made to research these issues beyond the course modules. Given these extremes, five outside sources, or one per page, seems fair.

Research…?

The remaining modules take care of this!

Summarize in bullet points?

• Pick a course concept you want to make an argument for. 
• Formulate a general argument/thesis that states the above with complexity.
• Conduct research into your thesis, with the goal of crafting a larger argument that "proves" the thesis.
• Remediate this research into an argumentative, persuasive essay, using the rhetorical tools that we have discussed throughout the class to do so. 
• Turn it in.
• Enjoy life in our dumpster fire of a Pandemic-flavored existence until next semester.

What’s the Length and Format Again? - Somewhere in the close vicinity of 1,500 words. 12 point, TNR or Calibri Font, Double Spaced, Four Line Header, Title, One-Inch Margins All Around, and MLA citations for the work analyzed as well as any that are referenced therein.

Who’s My Audience for This Thing? - Academic audiences. The language choices should reflect such an audience as discussed throughout the last few weeks. If you wish to take risks with language choices, or if breaking academic audience conventions is a central part of your argument, I’m cool with that, provided that such risks are relevant to your argument.